Blue Jackets 3 – Blues 2 (O/T)

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So, the Blues got a point.  Which, against a team like the Blue Jackets, simply is not good enough.    Once again, the Blues are having issues scoring goals – and yes, Mathieu Garon for the Blue Jackets had an excellent game – but how far do the Blues expect to progress when they don’t have an all out true sniper on the team?    You cannot really class Boyes as a sniper.  Not anymore.  Yes, he had a one timer excellently saved by Garon but he also missed a practically open net from about 10 feet away.

Of course, there were stupid and amazingly incompetent decisions by the officials – something we Blues fans have now come to expect.  I hope that somewhere something is being said about this.    On the bright side, the Blues scored two powerplay goals – on the downside we’ve had hardly any powerplay opportunities over the last few games as no Blue seems to be drawing penalties.

The Blues outshot the Blue Jackets 27-19, despite the fact that they were outshot 9-3 in the second period.   Mason made some great saves but he was hung out to dry on the Blue Jackets winning overtime goal.  Paul Kariya has to hold his hands up to that one.  He stopped tracking back with the Blue Jackets, Kris Russell, and let him skate around him for a clear shot on goal.

I’m not sure where the Blues go from here – their upcoming schedule is a killer.  To add more concern, one of the Blues hottest offensive players at the moment, Alex Steen, did not come out for the third period after suffering a “lower body injury”.   No word yet on how serious it is.  The Blues can still make the playoffs – but they need to play a lot better than they have been.

The Blues don’t play now until Wednesday – a well deserved rest after playing 11 games in 19 days.  Some time for them to think and heal.  And some time for management to consider the situation.  It’s going to be interesting to see how long they wait before deciding to explore the trade option.

Anyway, your game reports:

• The Blues Official Site has the recap and game highlights together with interviews with Chris Mason, David Backes and Davis Payne.
• St Louis Game Time game day thread tells it like it is.
• Dan O’Neill of the Post Dispatch says that the Blues “hit yet another bump” with comments from Chris Mason and David Backes.

It’s not all doom and gloom – there are bright spots.  The play of Oshie for one – Andy McDonald for another.  Eric Brewer also had another very solid night – picking up another assist.  There’s still hope…

Blues 2 – Oilers 1

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Not a bad overall result for the Blues short Canadian road trip – 4 points out of a possible 6.  Beating the Oilers last night was essential.  It kept the Blues only 4 points out of a playoff spot and they leapfrogged over the Ducks to grab 12th place in the Conference.

It certainly wasn’t a classic game by any means – the Blues did just enough to win and that could possibly have been the game plan all along.  After all, the Blues have games against very tough opponents in the next few games.  The Oilers have lost 19 out of their last 20 games – they’ll have to start winning eventually … thankfully it wasn’t to happen against the Blues.  Both teams had their chances – and honestly the game could have gone either way.

The Oilers scored first – Dustin Penner with his 22nd goal of the season in the second period – but the Blues were level less than 20 seconds later.   Good work from Andy McDonald as he skated behind the Oilers net and passed the puck up to Brewer on the point.  Brewer just hit a beautiful one timer through traffic and into the net.   Later in the period, David Backes managed to hit the crossbar.

Alex Steen got the game winner for the Blues in the third period – play was broken up in the Blues zone and Sydor passed the puck to Steen.  Steen raced up ice and scored in the corner of the net.  The Oilers pulled their goalie late on but simply couldn’t find a way past Chris Mason.  An essential win for the Blues – and here are your game reports:

• The Blues Official Site has the recap and game highlights.
• St Louis Game Time note that the Blues avoided embarrassment – and the site has some good topics up for debate if you’d like to get involved.
• Jeremy Rutherford at the Post Dispatch says that the Blues “slip past” the Oilers in Edmonton – with comments from Davis Payne, Alex Steen, Chris Mason and Eric Brewer.

As mentioned previously, the Blues needed these two points – because their upcoming games include Columbus, Chicago (twice), San Jose, Colorado, Detroit and Washington.  Very tough.

Blues 2 – Canucks 3

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So, donkey time again in Vancouver. I’m not talking about the Blues players – I’m talking about the officiating. It was dreadful. Blatant penalties that would have put the Blues on the powerplay went uncalled whereas the officials called the most incomprehensible penalties against the Blues. The so-called penalty that led to the game winning powerplay goal was a case in point. One of the Sedins got a little tap on his hand by Paul Kariya’s stick – something that happens numerous times in every game. However…Sedin the Drama Queen reacted as though someone had just shot his hand off – skating away whilst dramatically shaking the OTHER hand. The official who was merely 6 feet away didn’t call the penalty. The official who was about 70 feet away, obscured by players, DID call the penalty. Utterly ridiculous. Fans attend and watch games to see the players – they don’t go to watch fools in striped shirts trying to make a name for themselves. Officials should not be the ones to decide the outcome of the game – that’s up to the players. When the officiating is THIS bad, it honestly makes you wonder why you bother. The bad call on Kariya wasn’t the only one. David Perron also got called for high sticking – after another dramatic performance by a Canuck who deserved an Emmy for the high quality of his acting. The Canucks recently complained about a referee – is that why so many calls went their way?

Rant over – back to the game itself. The Blues didn’t play brilliantly – but they certainly deserved an OT point which they didn’t get due to referee incompetence. It all keeps coming back to the refs, doesn’t it? Anyway, Backes returned – and his pass led to Oshie’s tying goal. The trouble was that the Blues reverted at stages to their “turnover” mentality – David Perron coughing up the puck which led to the first Canuck goal. If, however, you watch that goal again…you’ll see that Perron got a nasty slash across the hand which caused him to give up the puck. Guess those wonderful officials missed another one.

Anyway, here are your game reports – from people who can describe it all much better (and in a less ranty way) than I can:

• The Blues Official Site has the recap and game highlights.
• St Louis Game Time sums up the game and has a rant at the officials too. However, they have stats to back it all up.
• Jeremy Rutherford at the Post Dispatch notes that the Canucks fended off the Blues – with comments from Davis Payne, Ty Conklin, TJ Oshie and Eric Brewer.

It’s the Oilers tonight – and the Blues really have to beat the Western Conference’s bottom dwelling team.  Look for Chris Mason to get the start tonight.

Eric Brewer – Oh Captain, My Captain

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Eric Brewer is very similar to Cam Janssen – in one respect.  Mention either name and you’ll get an instant polarisation of opinion.  Fans will either leap to their defence or fall over themselves to get the first insults in.   Eric Brewer is the Blues fans current whipping boy: he gets insulted on forums, booed when on the ice and yet, this is the man who is the Captain of the St Louis Blues.  You would think there’d be a little more respect for the man who wears the “C” on his chest.  So, time for a closer look at our enigmatic and quiet Captain and see if we can figure a few things out.

Eric Brewer’s NHL career started after being drafted 5th overall in 1997 by the New York Islanders – behind such luminaries as Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Olli Jokinen and Roberto Luongo.  He signed officially with the Islanders in 1998 – on an entry level contract with signing bonus.  Brewer was very highly regarded and played 63 games in his rookie season – amassing eleven points, 32 penalty minutes and 63 shots.   The following season saw Brewer demoted to the AHL after playing only three games for the Islanders.  Brewer was with the Lowell Lock Monsters for two weeks until he was recalled to the Islanders.  After a further 26 games with the Islanders – where he managed two assists – Brewer was demoted once again…this time for the remainder of the season.  However, it was at this stage that the first of Brewer’s “injury jinxes” hit and he missed over two months with a sprained knee.

Blues 2 – Flames 0

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Amazing, isn’t it? After losing to the Blue Jackets, Senators and Ducks in the last week or so, some sections of the online Blues world were convinced that the sky was falling: trades, benchings, demotions were all proposed. Yet, here we are. Last night’s win against the Flames means that, despite the trials and tribulations of this season, the Blues are currently only 4 points from a playoff position. Makes you kind of yearn for the position the Blues might have been in had they played more up to expectations. But there’s no point dwelling on “might have beens”. Let’s look at what last night’s game showed us.

It showed us that the Blues are capable of holding a lead in the third period – thanks to some superlative saves from Ty Conklin. Mason and Conklin work well together – there seems to be no jealousy, no attitude – they both seem to genuinely want what’s best for the team.

The game also showed us Kariya’s speed; Tkachuk’s determination, David Perron’s finishing ability and much more besides. Cam Janssen had two fights – one against the heavyweight Brian McGratton and another against Brandon Prust. Rather wonderfully, even though McGratton had the reach and size advantage over Janssen, he didn’t back down – even waving the linesmen away. Things definitely happen when Cam plays!

The Blues goals were scored by Patrik Berglund – his 7th of the season and first goal in 13 games. It might have been scrappy – going in off a skate – but who cares? Hopefully, this can be the start of good things for Mr Berglund. David Perron netted the Blues second of the game and his 15th of the season following good work from Tkachuk, Sydor and McDonald.

Now – your game reports:

• The Blues Official Site has the game report and highlights (see below).
• St Louis Game Time note that the Blues – and Ty Conklin – looked strong last night and ask fans for their opinion.
• Jeremy Rutherford of the Post Dispatch says that the Blues won a “bruising” battle in Calgary – with comments from Davis Payne, Darryl Sydor, Patrik Berglund and Ty Conklin.

The Blues continue their Canadian road trip on ‘Wednesday against the Canucks.  In the meantime, check out last night’s game highlights:

Blues recall Tyson Strachan

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The Blues have today recalled defenseman Tyson Strachan from the Peoria Rivermen. Carlo Colaiacovo has been placed on IR – retroactive to 21 January – with a lower body injury.

Tyson Strachan has played in 31 games for the Rivermen this season with 2 goals and 12 assists – Strachan also has 48 penalty minutes. He has played 6 games for the Blues this season – collecting 2 assists and 4 penalty minutes.

David Backes is skating again and both he and Colaiacovo will accompany the team on the upcoming road trip to Western Canada.

Sources: Andy Strickland and Peoria Rivermen

Ducks 4 – Blues 3 (S/O)

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For the third time this season, the Blues completely threw away a three goal lead on home ice.  And in the third period.  What is it with the Blues mental meltdowns in the final twenty minutes?  Andy Murray failed to solve the problem – let’s hope Davis Payne finds the answer.  Payne is running out of time to do it though as, with only securing one point last night, the Blues are falling further behind in the standings.

The Blues started well – hustling and playing hard.  They had a good first period with the shot count tied at 6 each and the teams went in with a tied 0-0 scoreline.   The second period was just as even – the only difference being that, despite the Ducks outshooting them 11-10, the Blues managed to score two goals.  Andy McDonald picked up his 16th goal of the season with a slapshot at the beginning of the period and BJ Crombeen got his 4th of the season at the 14 minute mark.

When TJ Oshie scored three minutes into the third period, Blues fans can be forgiven for breathing a bit easier.   However, a mistake by Barret Jackman a couple of minutes later, led to Scott Niedermeyer bringing the Ducks back into the game by scoring past Chris Mason.  From that moment on, it was all Ducks.  The Blues retreated and, instead of taking the game to the Ducks and going on the offensive, they sat back and let the Ducks walk all over them.  The Blues stopped doing what had been so successful in the first two periods – initiating offense – and instead just reacted to what the Ducks were doing.   Bobby Ryan scored two and tied the game with 30 seconds remaining.  The Blues were outshot 17-3 in the final period.  Poor Chris Mason must have wondered when the bombardment would stop.

With no score in overtime, the game went to a shootout – finally being decided in round 7 when James Wisniewski scored to give the game to the Ducks.  It should never have got to that stage.  The Blues are not going to advance unless they learn how to close out games.  They have no killer instinct – and if the opposing team scores on them, they go into meltdown mode.  Just take a look at the shot count from last night – the Blues were outshot 37-21 yet it was pretty even up until the final period.  That doesn’t tell the whole story – the Ducks also missed with 19 shots and had 17 more blocked.  Maybe other teams can afford to sit back once they go three goals up – the Blues quite plainly cannot.

Anyway – your game reports:

• The Blues Official Site has the recap, highlights and interviews with Keith Tkachuk, Chris Mason and Davis Payne.
• St Louis Game Time Game Day Thread – if you thought the Blues imploded…just check out the reactions on here.
• Jeremy Rutherford of the Post Dispatch notes that the Blues let the Ducks get away – with comments from Andy McDonald, Davis Payne, Chris Mason and TJ Oshie.

Things aren’t ALL depressing though – the Blues have a new tv commercial.  Check it out on the Blues site

Blues 2 – Senators 3

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In the Montreal game, the Blues deserved to win – decisively so.  They almost threw it away but they basically outplayed and outworked the Canadiens.  Not so against the Senators.  In essence, the Blues should have lost by a wider margin – and probably would have done so if it weren’t for Chris Mason together with the Senators inability to finish off a game.

Back to back games are the enemy of the Blues this season – after last night’s game their record is 2-7-2.  Is it the fact that they play such a physical game that it’s impossible to keep going for a second consecutive game?  Are they out of condition?  Tiring too quickly?  I wish I knew – but the Blues have to find the answer quickly.

To be fair to the Blues, there were a few quite eye raising decisions by the officials but the Blues top 10 ranked penaltykill were out of sorts – allowing the Senators 30th ranked powerplay 3 goals on 5 five powerplays.  On the other side of the coin, the Blues powerplay went 0-4.   Special teams are important – this game showed just HOW important because it killed the Blues.  There were the usual problems – turnovers, sloppy play, inability to clear the zone – that seem to happen more during the second game of a back to back series.

The Blues are a work in progress – they are a young team…and young teams are inconsistent.  They also have a relatively new coach so ups and downs are to be expected.  There’s no denying the team have played better since Davis Payne took over – and last night, the Blues were without David Backes who is suffering an upper body injury.  Patrik Berglund has just recovered from flu so his ice time was limited to just over 10 minutes.

I do feel however, that the Blues are on the verge of a breakout – a high scoring game or a nice run of wins – mainly because of the smaller signs on ice: Paul Kariya is now flying up and down the ice and has scored twice in three games; Brad Boyes finally scored last night; TJ Oshie has found his hustling game again;  Alex Steen is showing the hot offensive talent that was always suspected; Keith Tkachuk is proving what a warrior he is and Patrik Berglund is playing with a lot more confidence and energy.  It’s going to happen – the question is will it be in time to leapfrog the Blues into the playoffs?

So…your game reports:

• The Blues Official Site has the recap and game highlights.
• St Louis Game Time Game Day Thread – if you haven’t participated in one of these then I suggest you do so. You’ll learn a whole new vocabulary, discuss the details of the game- and have a whole lot of fun whilst doing so.
• Dan O’Neill of the Post Dispatch notes that the Blues lost a tough one – with comments from Keith Tkachuk, Davis Payne and Brad Boyes.

Next up, the Blues play Anaheim at the Scottrade Center.  An important game – the Ducks are two points ahead of the Blues and have played one game more.  There’s also that small matter of payback on Ryan Getzlaf after his unpenalised knee on knee on Barret Jackman.  I really hope Janssen is on the bench for this game.

Blues 4 – Canadiens 3 (O/T)

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This game won’t be remembered for the scoreline…it won’t be remembered for David Perron scoring whilst playing against his hometown team…Ty Conklin’s brilliant overtime save will probably not be mentioned again. No, this game will be remembered for the incredible first period “collision” between Cam Janssen and Carey Price. Like him or loathe him, things happen when Janssen is on the ice.

So, what happened? Montreal caught on a sloppy line change and a loose puck along the boards drifted into the Montreal zone. Janssen skated hard after the puck – remember there were two defenders in the Montreal zone. Carey Price, for some inexplicable reason, left his crease and came way out past the faceoff hash marks to try and play the puck. Both Janssen and Price reached the puck at the same time. Janssen literally had nowhere to go – he was against the boards – so he tried to jump over Price. If Janssen hadn’t tried to get out of the way, the result could have been very nasty for Carey Price. Of course, Janssen barrelled into Price and the whole thing developed into a scrum. Price tried getting hold of Janssen…and Ty Conklin skated out of his crease towards the fracas just in case.

The amazing thing was, when it all shook down, Janssen was penalised for “roughing” – not that he had much choice when Hamrlik AND Price tried beating on him – Hamrlik was penalised for “roughing”…Ty Conklin was penalised for “leaving his crease” and Carey Price didn’t get penalised at all – which was a total injustice. Price left his crease. He was “roughing”. According to the commentators he “threw punches” at Janssen yet he gets away scot-free? Utterly unbelievable. Take a look at the video and judge for yourselves:

The game itself was one of highs and lows for the Blues. They came out hard and were soon one up courtesy of David Perron who scored a powerplay goal in the first few minutes of the game. Paul Kariya made it 2-0 less than a minute later when he bounced the puck off the out of position Carey Price. With the Blues 2-0 up, came the infamous Janssen/Price collision and Montreal pulled one back by scoring less than 10 seconds into their controversial powerplay. The Blues regained their 2 goal cushion just 13 seconds prior to the end of the period when McClement’s shot was kicked away by Carey Price, right into the path of Alex Steen who made no mistake and bagged his 11th goal of the season.

A pretty even second period saw more chances created by both teams but the goalies stood firm. It was, once again, the final period when things fell apart for the Blues. Barret Jackman coughed up the puck with just over 10 minutes left to play and Pouliot scored to pull the Canadiens within one goal. With just over 30 seconds left, the officials once again caused more than a few Blues fans to scratch their heads in disbelief after missing an obvious interference call and the Canadiens tied the game with Cammalleri tipping in Spacek’s shot.

As mentioned before, Ty Conklin made a quite wonderful save on Markov before Paul Kariya slid the puck to Andy McDonald just inside the Montreal blueline and his wrist shot beat Price to win the game for the Blues. They certainly deserved it – but they really need to get to the bottom of this strange mental breakdown in the third period. Anyway – your game reports:

• The Blues Official Site has the recap and game highlights.
• St Louis Game Time notes that the Blues literally run over Carey Price.
• Dan O’Neill of the Post Dispatch says that Conklin and McDonald save the day for the Blues with comments from Keith Tkachuk, Davis Payne, David Perron and Ty Conklin.

The Blues will do it all over again tonight when they play the Senators in Ottawa.

Blues 2 – Blue Jackets 4

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Surprisingly, the Blues looked sleepy and listless – rather like they did a few weeks ago.  They certainly weren’t the same team that had just won 4 in a row.  Turnovers, mistakes, lack of energy and passion – the same accusations that were levelled at the team in the final days of the Andy Murray tenure.  However, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and call it a blip on a radar.   The sky isn’t falling and we’ll see how they respond in tomorrow’s game in Montreal.

On the upside, Paul Kariya scored his first goal in 15 games – a powerplay goal at that.  Keith Tkachuk powered his way to the net for his 11th of the season and the Blues outshot the Blue Jackets by 32-30.  So, it’s not all bad.  However, too many Blues seemed to take the night off – or coast around.  I can’t see Davis Payne letting that slide and the Blues had an extra practice today in Columbus to work on “support play”.

I feel confident we’ll see the hard working, passionate and hard forechecking team tomorrow in Montreal – it looks like Ty Conklin might well get the start.  However – your game reports:

• The Blues Official Site has the recap and game highlights.
• St Louis Game Time point out that the Blues have now lost one in a row.
• Jeremy Rutherford at the Post Dispatch notes that the Blues lost for the first time in five games, with comments from Davis Payne, Barret Jackman and Chris Mason.

There are other things going on today in Blues-land:

• Jeremy Rutherford announces that the Blues have hired Tyler Love as the new goalie coach. The Blues have been without a goalie coach since Rick Wamsley took over as Head Coach in Peoria. Tyler Love is co-owner of the World Pro Goaltending Center in Calgary and has worked with Chris Mason during the last two offseasons. Love has also worked with Carey Price, Mike Brodeur and Chad Johnson.
• The Blues Official Site have a three part video interview with Blues Head Coach, Davis Payne.